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April 27th, 2012
Edition #301
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In this Issue
In Other News
This Day in History 4977 B.C.
The Universe is Created, According to Kepler
On this day in 4977 B.C., the universe is created, according to German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, considered a founder of modern science. Kepler is best known for his theories explaining the motion of planets.
Kepler was born on December 27, 1571, in Weil der Stadt, Germany. As a university student, he studied the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus' theories of planetary ordering. Copernicus (1473-1543) believed that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the solar system, a theory that contradicted the prevailing view of the era that the sun revolved around the earth.
In 1600, Kepler went to Prague to work for Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, the imperial mathematician to Rudolf II, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Kepler's main project was to investigate the orbit of Mars. When Brahe died the following year, Kepler took over his job and inherited Brahe's extensive collection of astronomy data, which had been painstakingly observed by the naked eye. Over the next decade, Kepler learned about the work of Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who had invented a telescope with which he discovered lunar mountains and craters, the largest four satellites of Jupiter and the phases of Venus, among other things. Click here to read more.
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4/27/12 The Washington Post  
The U.S. economic recovery slowed in the first three months of the year, with growth falling to an annual rate of 2. 2 percent, as government spending declined and businesses invested less, the Commerce Department said Friday. The number fell below expectations. The economy had been growing at a rate of 3 percent in the last three months of 2011, and economists had been anticipating growth of 2.5 percent or more, surveys showed. “Following a strong performance at the end of 2011, this most recent growth rate may be called modest, at best.”
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4/24/12 MarketWatch
The Goliath is PayPal, eBay Inc.’s successful online payments business, where PayPal is the preferred payment method of eBay, and increasingly seen as a payment option on other websites. It has 100 million active consumer accounts. The David in this scenario is Square, a San Francisco-based start-up company founded by Jack Dorsey, who is also co-founder and executive chairman of Twitter. On eBay’s earnings conference call last week, Chief Executive John Donahoe highlighted PayPal’s recent moves, noting that 2012 will be a year for “piloting, testing and learning.”
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4/27/12 Digital Transactions
The re-terminalization of the merchant point of sale to accept EMV chip cards could generate more than $6 billion in revenues for independent sales organizations and other merchant acquirers, but the changeover is fraught with competitive and operational risks, according to a new research report by Aite Group LLC. Aite last month surveyed payments executives from 20 ISOs and bank-owned acquiring operations about the payment card network programs to migrate the U.S. from old magnetic-stripe credit and debit cards to the newer EMV chip cards now common in most industrialized nations.
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4/26/12 Finextra
"Mobile technology and processes are just beginning to emerge and we won't know which practices the public will like or what methods will provide new benefits until the technology begins to coalesce," NRF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan said. "The government should not impose regulations that would forestall yet-to-be-imagined advances and innovation in order to avoid potential 'harm' based largely on speculation."
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4/24/12 Bank Info Security
Global Payments Inc., the breached payments processor, is still trying to re-establish its own compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. But at the same time, the company is taking proactive steps to promote payment card security to its own merchant customers. Meanwhile, from a prominent link on the Global Payments homepage, the processor actively promotes PCI compliance for merchants who accept payment card transactions. All merchants must be compliant," the special PCI site announces to merchants. "The best way to obtain your compliance is to validate with a qualified secured assessor."
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4/25/12 Bank Think
There has been a lot of speculation about the social network's plans to better connect buyers and sellers of goods and services. Does Facebook want to become the next Western Union (WU)? It has gone through the trouble of gaining money transmitter licenses in more than a dozen states. Or does Facebook actually want to manage the risk associated with card-not-present transactions and extend credit to buyers, like PayPal and its BillMeLater service? The social network does look a lot like eBay (EBAY) before it bought PayPal. But I don't think either of these theories is right. My guess is that Facebook wants to be more like a processor.
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4/25/12 NFC World
"It's still very early days for mobile payments and we know [it] will take time to build a mobile commerce ecosystem, but we're very committed to this goal and are encouraged by the progress we've made to date," says the search giant, as it makes unlocked Galaxy Nexus NFC phones available for US$399. "This week, we're excited to say that Sprint launched three new phones that support Google Wallet including the Galaxy Nexus, LG Viper 4G LTE and LG Optimus Elite."
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4/25/12 ISO & Agent
Using smartphones to make financial transactions will seem like a normal part of everyday life by 2020, new research suggests. Pew Research Center Study released its study data April 17. For the report “The Future of Money: Smartphone swiping in the mobile age,” Pew researchers put two scenarios before 1,021 experts and asked them to agree with one or the other, and provide explanation to allow for partial agreement and gray areas. They conducted the research from Aug. 28 to Oct. 31 last year.
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4/25/12 Bank Systems & Technology
China will have the world's largest mobile payments market by 2015, according to a report from Kapronasia, an advisory and consulting group focused not he Chinese financial tech sector.
The report, titled "Mobile Payments in China," indicated that Chinese mobile payment market is nearly doubling in size every year and is expected to be worth more than $80 billion with 441 million active users by 2015. China has already overtaken the US as the largest smartphone market in the world.
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4/25/12 The New York Times
The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that its expectations for domestic economic growth during the current year have increased modestly since January, but it reduced its growth forecast for 2013 and 2014. In a statement following a two-day meeting of its policy-making committee, the Fed said that it would continue its existing efforts to stimulate the economy, but it decided again not to expand those efforts, even though its projections show unemployment will remain a massive and persistent problem for years to come. The statement also said that the Fed plans to maintain those existing efforts, including holding short-term interest rates near zero, “at least through late 2014.”
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4/24/12 BusinessWire
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) today released the results of the 2011 Government E-Payments Adoption Ranking (GEAR) study, commissioned by Visa Inc. (NYSE:V). The GEAR study measures the extent to which governments in 62 countries provide e-payment services and the underlying factors that affect government e-payments adoption. It builds on an initial study conducted in 2007 with new findings that highlight the diversity of government e-payment systems already in place.
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4/25/12 Bloomberg
Square Inc., maker of credit-card readers for smartphones and tablets, has increased its payment volume 25 percent since March, when EBay Inc. (EBAY)’s PayPal showed off a new mobile scanner and underscored growth in the field. Square, founded in 2009, is processing transactions at an annualized rate of $5 billion, up from $4 billion a month ago, as more consumers embrace mobile payments, Chief Operating Officer Keith Rabois said in an interview. The market may top $170 billion in transactions by 2015, up from about $60 billion last year.
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4/26/12 Vantiv
Vantiv, Inc. today announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2012. Revenue increased 17% to $432.8 million as compared to $371.4 million in the prior year. Net revenue increased 23% to $232.6 million as compared to $189.2 million in the prior year. Cash net income increased 30% to $42.4 million as compared to $32.5 million in the prior year. Adjusted cash net income per share was $0.20. (See Schedule 2 for cash net income and Schedule 6 for GAAP net income reconciliation to cash net income.)
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4/26/12 GreenSheet
Dovetail, the provider of next generation payment services hubs, today announces the release of the Dovetail NACHA Reference Solution enabling real-time, item-level processing for all payments, irrespective of initiating channel. Engineered from existing capabilities of the Dovetail Payment Services Hub, the NACHA Reference Solution is pre-configured to enable out-of-the box processing of NACHA payments. The Dovetail NACHA Reference Solution enables a bank to submit and receive payment requests on behalf of their customers, while providing tailored value-added services that allow the bank to differentiate in a competitive market.
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4/26/12 TSYS
TSYS today announced it had won the prestigious Industry Partner of the Year Award at The VRL Middle East Prepaid Awards dinner and ceremony in Dubai. The award was given in recognition of TSYS’ influence over the region’s prepaid initiatives during 2011. “TSYS would like to congratulate all the awards winners on their outstanding success. We are proud to have won Industry Partner of the Year, an achievement that reflects our on-going commitment to our clients, the region and the prepaid market."
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4/26/12 FIS
Revenue from continuing operations increased 4.6% to $1.45 billion in the first quarter of 2012, compared to $1.38 billion in the first quarter of 2011. GAAP net earnings from continuing operations attributable to common stockholders totaled $95.8 million, or $0.32 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2012, compared to $96.1 million, or $0.31 per diluted share, in the prior year quarter.
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4/25/12 PayNearMe
PayNearMe, the cash transaction network, today announced the availability of a new mobile cash payment system, changing the way millions of consumers pay their bills and purchase goods or services. Deploying this option, Greyhound and Progreso Financiero became the first companies to offer the 25 percent of U.S. consumers who lack credit or debit cards or who prefer to pay with cash the ability to use their mobile phones for payments.
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4/24/12 DMW
Monetization solutions firm PlaySpan, a Visa company, today announced that its UltimatePay combination subscription and micropayments billing product is available to all content and application providers. During the past eight months it has been limited to use by a controlled group of 20 companies, including Nickelodeon, Playdom, Ubisoft, K2, Livemocha, Knowledge Adventure, Gazillion, Gaia, R2 Games, Quepasa and Woozworld.
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4/23/12 Mobile Payments Today
POS-maker Digital Dining announced it will be integrating the Tabbedout mobile payment app into its product portfolio by the end of this quarter. Digital Dining, as its name implies, specializes in point-of-sale equipment for the hospitality industry. By adding Tabbedout to their payment options, restaurants and bars that use Digital Dining equipment will now be able to give patrons the ability to open, view and pay their tabs using their mobile devices without having to upgrade or add any hardware or software.
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4/26/12 Internet Retailer
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. today announced a new “Cash” payment option that offers Walmart.com shoppers without credit or debit cards a new way to buy online. “Many of our customers shop paycheck to paycheck and are looking for more ways to purchase items online but don't have the means to a credit, debit or prepaid card," says Joel Anderson, president and CEO of Walmart.com, U.S.
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4/25/12 Reuters
Thousands of Canadian retailers already have equipment in place to let customers pay for purchases with a swipe of their mobile phones, putting the country in the lead in developing a system that could one day make cash obsolete. All that's needed is an agreement between banks, credit card companies and telecoms, and that appears to be coming soon, promising to transform how Canadians pay for everything from their morning coffee to a tankful of gasoline.
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